The last two decades has seen a growing awareness of the integral positionof film and media studies within Irish culture, particularly in (though notconfined to) a contemporary environment. The increased scholarlyinvestigation of Irish visual culture has, however, exposed a division inthe subject on theoretical and aesthetic grounds: between the general fieldof Irish Studies, which has embraced an approach which engages openly withcritical and cultural theory, and the established discipline of Irish FilmStudies, which has tended to resist such interrogation, preferring toprivilege political, national and historical registers. The aim of thissymposium is to bridge this gap; to explore the intersections of apeculiarly Irish visual culture and theoretical considerations of the same;to contemplate what might be the scope, and significance, of thisdeliberate and sustained exposure of Irish film and media to paradigms ofcritical and cultural theory.